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The Order of Oddfish

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Odd-Fish art show at mansion this Saturday!

March 27, 2011

It’s been busy few weeks! I had a smashing time at the Warrensburg Children’s Literature Festival, spoke about interactive fiction at the Illinois Reading Conference with the brilliant and hilarious M.T. Anderson, and this weekend the Wall Street Journal published another one of my book reviews—this time about Discoverers of the Universe, Michael Hoskin’s biography of brother-and-sister astronomers William and Caroline Herschel.

Now I’m getting ready for another Odd-Fish fan art show, this Saturday, April 2 at the Hegeler Carus mansion in La Salle, IL! Here’s all the details about the event. There will be writing workshops during the day and a reception that night starting at 7 pm.

Above is another stellar piece of Order of Odd-Fish art—a picture of Eldritch City—by Sebastian Beaghen, whom I met at a recent school visit in Oak Park, IL. It’s really worth clicking to look at the larger view. I love the maniacal detail of the squished-together buildings, the bit of land untethered from the ground trailing a rope ladder, and the numerous people and creatures all coming and going, like looking into an anthill. Search closer and you can find the Odd-Fish lodge, the Schwenk, a zeppelin called the SS Hazelwood, and other surprises. Sebastian is also in the middle of writing a fascinatingly inventive novel called The Goings on of 766 Peachtree Avenue, which is so insane and absurd it makes Odd-Fish read like Raymond Carver. Sebastian’s going places.

The formidably talented Pirka (previously featured here and here on the blog) has also turned in yet another gem of Odd-Fish art! Here Pirka has taken the kitchen-sink approach (which I love) and filled the page with delightful pictures of scenes from throughout the book—Korsakov hiding behind a plant, the urk-ack, Ian insisting on his mustache, Audrey-as-Nick, Dame Isabel huffing at a gas mask—and some scenes that aren’t in the book: various characters in bathing suits, for instance, and a monster idea for a sequel! Again, it’s really worth clicking on to see the larger version.

This Saturday, April 2, much of this Odd-Fish art will be featured at the Hegeler Carus mansion in La Salle, IL! And I know some of the artists will be attending, too. It will be a strange and interesting time. You should come.

I’ll leave you with a final piece of Odd-Fish art from Pirka—this time, a rather creepy-but-weirdly-cute one of Jo turning into the Ichthala. The cloudy green swirls in the eyes! The hellish, fiery background! Ah-h-h-h!